Bug FAQBelonocnema kinseyi
Belonocnema kinseyi · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Cynipidae
The wasp makes smooth orange-brown balls on the underside of oak leaves that turn darker with age. Its sexual generation creates irregular, multi-chambered galls on small rootlets.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Root galls are irregularly shaped and occur in clusters.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Leaf galls are smooth, single-chambered balls on the leaf underside.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It is found in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
It forms galls on live oak (Quercus virginiana) and post oak (Quercus fusiformis).
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
The species has both asexual and sexual generations. Asexual galls appear on leaf undersides, while sexual galls appear on roots.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Its range includes the United States, specifically the four states above.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It differs from B. fossoria by having a shorter fore-tibial spur than the basitarsus. In the sexual generation it can be told apart from B. treatae by deep scutellar foveae separated by a narrow carina and a reddish-brown color.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 6 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas, Alabama.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
How can I tell this gall wasp apart from similar species?
Check the length of the fore-tibial spur and the shape of the scutellar foveae; these features differ from B. fossoria and B. treatae.
Source: Wikipedia
Where is this wasp found in the United States?
It has been recorded in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Cynipidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belonocnema_kinseyi
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.